Why Do We Do That?

“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you – unless you believed to no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.” (1 Cor. 15:1-5, HCSB)

I was reading the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry recently (I know, I really need to get a life!), and I came across an article by a guy I have had as a professor. He was telling a story about a time when he was interviewing before a pastor search committee, and the question came up, “What is the Gospel?” He related the above passage, thinking that he had nailed this softball, and was shocked when a member of the committee disagreed vehemently, then launched into a lengthy, theologically impressive lecture about the Gospel as he understood it. While,my professor said, this brother in Christ was not technically, doctrinally, nor theologically incorrect, he had totally missed the point of the Gospel – that it is not complicated, and it should never be.

He began to wonder, as did I while I read this great little article, how often we do the same thing. We think, to be important – to be something “of God” – a truth must be technical, deep and lengthy, full of multiple points, sub-points and layer upon layer of nuanced meaning. Truth, we are led to believe,is the stuff of seminary lectures and theological conferences – something to be studied and debated, then passed down to the masses. How could we so totally have missed the point of the Gospel?

We have spent a great deal of time talking about being “ordinary Christians.” We’ve been looking at scripture after scripture where God has called us to just love, serve and reach. There’s nothing deep or nuanced about it. The more I’ve studied, the more God has revealed to me that there’s really nothing fancy about what God wants from us. The same is true with the Gospel. It’s plain. It’s straightforward. It’s uncomplicated. And, when we share it, it is something that anybody can grasp and respond to. My professor wrote, “What are we to preach and share? Simply put, the gospel is the story of Jesus. We need not complicate it.”

He responded to this committee member by saying, “There is a serious problem with your gospel if it can only be understood by a very small percentage of the world’s population. If our gospel cannot be proclaimed and understood in the jungles of Africa, the rainforests of South America, and in the rice fields of Asia, there is a problem with our gospel.” To that, he commented, “Faithful gospeling presents the full gospel and does so with a desire to be theologically accurate, understanding that gospeling does not necessitate a discourse that feels more like a systematic theology class than a person telling another person about Jesus.”

Listen, we should be about the business of telling others about Jesus – of sharing with someone how they can be saved from their sin. Since the dawn of Christianity, the gospel has been shared by the educated and uneducated with the educated and uneducated – and it has transformed the world. Let’s just keep it simple – keep it about Jesus, and what He did for you. It’s personal, it’s unpretentious, it’s uncomplicated. We all can do it, without ever taking a theology class. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get busy!

In His love,

Bro. Heath